


nowhere to begin yet everywhere to end

by tieflingz



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24377431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tieflingz/pseuds/tieflingz
Summary: The two cat-like figures stop walking toward him, and Jaypaw can see them more clearly now. The large, dark tabby with amber eyes speaks first, his voice a low, hoarse rumble as he says, “You’re finally here.”___Jaypaw visits the Moonpool.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 29





	nowhere to begin yet everywhere to end

Jaypaw lies next to the Moonpool, his paws tucked beneath his chest and his nose hovering just over the water’s surface. His earlier resolve had withered into something much less stubborn and more uncertain, and, for the first time, he isn’t sure if he wants to hear what his ancestors have to say to him, if they say anything at all. Or, what he dreads more, if it’s even something he wants to hear. He knows that he can back out, if he wanted to, and go home not knowing anything more than before. 

He shifts nervously, before breathing out a heavy sigh. No, he thinks, rooting himself to the stone beneath him. He came here for answers, and he wasn’t leaving until he got them, whether they were what he wanted to hear or not. Resolute, he steels himself and touches his muzzle to the pool’s surface and immediately cringes at the icy cold lapping at his nose. He doesn’t pull away, though, and he drifts off to sleep.

He awakens in a dark clearing plagued with heavy, cloying fog. A sense of dread instills itself within him, and his claws rake the dried grass underfoot anxiously. He doesn’t know where he is, but he recognizes, immediately, that this isn’t StarClan.

Jaypaw stands too abruptly, his muscles stiff and his fur bristling. Noises he can’t quite place, far off somewhere in the dense, foggy expanse, only prove to make his nerves stand further on end, and he takes a step back, his gaze whipping around wildly. He feels eyes boring into him, somewhere within the fog, and he takes several steps back, ears pinned back to his head.

His gaze skips over something in the fog, and his heart nearly stops.

His eyes are locked onto two dark figures approaching him from the fog. He crouches low, his teeth flashing in a snarl, but despite his display he knows fear scent is rolling off of him in waves. 

The two cat-like figures stop walking toward him, and Jaypaw can see them more clearly now. The large, dark tabby with amber eyes speaks first, his voice a low, hoarse rumble as he says, “You’re finally here.”

Jaypaw’s eyes narrow in suspicion. “Who are you?” he demands, straightening to his full height - kit-like compared to the larger of the pair. “What is this place?”

The large tabby’s laugh is somehow more intimidating than his appearance, sounding more like a gravelly growl than something filled with mirth. “All will come in time, kit,” he says, watching Jaypaw as if he were a mouse - though, maybe to these cats, he  _ is _ a mouse. “For now, though… we’re aware of your situation. Your name is Jaypaw, correct?”

“How do you know that,” Jaypaw asks warily, eyeing the tabby. “Who are you?”

“Never mind that,” the smaller, pale-furred tom interrupts. “What matters is that we have an offer for you, Jaypaw.” His rather unsettling blue eyes are like chips of ice in the smoky fog cloaking him, making Jaypaw shift uncomfortably.

As if he’d accept an offer made by  _ these _ two, Jaypaw thinks with a snort. “Not interested.”

The larger cat appraises Jaypaw. “Aren’t you tired of the pity your Clan gives you, simply because you’re blind?”

Jaypaw whips his head around to stare at the tom.

“The doubt that you could ever be a warrior,” the pale tom adds, a glint in his eyes. “You know that they think you should be a medicine cat. It’s obvious; I’m sure you heard the talk at your apprentice ceremony.”

“That,” the large tabby continues, “is why we come to you with an offer. We will train you here, Jaypaw. Otherwise, your potential as a warrior will be wasted when you’re cast aside like rotten prey into the medicine cat’s den.” He leans toward Jaypaw, his gaze eager. “If you refuse, then your foolish, starry-eyed Clan will suffer the loss of a capable warrior.”

Jaypaw is silent for a few heartbeats, the toms’ offer repeating in his mind. They were right - everything they said was right, and they all knew it. He slowly opens his jaws to reply, but before he can speak, a new voice cuts in.

“Jaypaw!”

The three toms turn to face a significantly different newcomer, a sleek tortoiseshell with stars swirling through her fur.  _ Spottedleaf, _ Jaypaw recalls. Her amber eyes are locked onto the pair of toms with clear hostility shining within them as she rushes to Jaypaw’s side. Quickly scanning over the apprentice’s pelt, she frets, “Are you hurt? You need to come with me. Right now.”

Jaypaw’s brow furrows but before he can protest, the molly steers him away from the pair of toms, watching with matching looks of irritation. “Wait--” he attempts, but it’s as if the molly isn’t listening as she guides him hastily toward a gap in the dark, twisting trees.

The pair emerge into a clearing that was wildly different from the forest they’d left behind. It was a bright, grassy forest glade, lined with wildflowers, and the trees overhead were lush and green. 

Jaypaw tears away from Spottedleaf and glares at her. “What was that for?”

The molly sits and curls her tail elegantly over her paws. “Why have you come to the Moonpool?”

Jaypaw pins his ears back to his head. She didn’t answer his question! “Why do you care?” he shoots back.

“You’ve come to find out your true destiny, haven’t you?” Spottedleaf asks, unphased by his anger.

The apprentice pauses, startled at how she’d figured it out so easily, before nodding mutely. 

“You have a gift, Jaypaw,” Spottedleaf says, her eyes shining with stars. “You can go where even StarClan can’t, see what we can’t.”

“So?”

“So you need to use your power for the good of the Clan. You must become a medicine cat.”

Jaypaw’s fur bushes out as he snaps, “No! I want to be a warrior!”

“You must,” Spottedleaf insists, standing and stepping closer to Jaypaw. “Your gift can shape the destiny of your entire Clan.”

“I want to be a warrior!”

Spottedleaf takes another step closer to loom over Jaypaw, her amber eyes blazing now. “Accept your destiny!” she demands, tail lashing.

Jaypaw forces himself to keep his paws rooted to the spot as he stares up at the medicine cat, his head lifted in defiance. “It’s not fair,” he growls, his voice much weaker than he’d anticipated.

“It may not be,” Spottedleaf says, her voice low, “but it’s the path we have laid out for you. You will be a medicine cat.”

The words ring in Jaypaw’s head even after he wakes up back at the Moonpool. He sits up, head hanging as Spottedleaf’s words repeat in his mind.  _ Accept your destiny _ . He knows, now, that no matter what he does, he’ll never be able to escape what he’s known since he was a kit.

When Jaypaw returns to camp and curls into his nest, feeling his eyes burn with tears, he manages to drift off back into a fitful sleep. He meets the two toms again and, this time, Spottedleaf doesn’t interrupt. Jaypaw accepts their offer and tries to ignore the sly look in the large tabby’s eyes as his vision fades and he wakes up once more, a newfound feeling of hope kindling in his chest.


End file.
